Hi,

I need a POI database for a startup project I am working on - it will be a free basic version and a premium paid for version in the sense that user will pay a monthly subscription.

I would like to use foursquare type checkin to places and plancast type functionality to search for places (one-line search). Ie I need to: - perform a search for POIs around a location - associate users to that POI, with a time stamp - allow users to add own POIs - provide free-text search for POIs (a la google one-line search)

Google API allows great search, but I understand there are limits in number of requests that can be done? This would prevent scaling, and may result in application breaking when too many users. Also what does google T&C say about using this in a paid for service?

Openstreetmap I understand does not have these contstraints, but do they also provide a good one-line search type API? Or how could I solve this?

Many thanks for any advice, Ellie